This article provides insights into the many benefits of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) through speaking with AMI hardware and software providers including Jeff Lipton of WaterSmart Software. AMI offers consumers more choices, such as the option to view their water usage in real-time, providing more information to manage consumption, cost, and other decisions about service and usage. AMI also provides higher reliability, more accurate billing, and better quality of water delivery, while keeping the utilities’ water and electricity costs at reasonable levels. These are amongst the many benefits that the manufacturers, developers, and utilities are educating the public with as they introduce these solutions into the market.

As the Internet-of-Things (IoT) revolution continues to connect everything around us, most cities, urban areas, and developed markets are fast becoming smarter and more connected. Water is the next big thing being impacted by this IoT revolution. This article looks at startups innovating in the water industry. WaterSmart Software, a leader in this space, provides advanced intelligence for water utility managers and residential water customers with SaaS visual analytics, reporting, and customer relationship tools.

This article discusses several IoT solutions that enable energy and water conservation, including Pasadena, California’s deployment of WaterSmart Software’s digital and mobile applications to encourage water efficiency amongst residential water consumers.

South Staffs Water is implementing WaterSmart Software to improve water-use efficiency and drive measurable improvements in customer satisfaction as part of a broader program to develop and adopt innovative solutions.

Ed Archuleta, Director of Water Initiatives at University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and Advisory Board Member to WaterSmart Software, discusses the future of Texas’ water supplies in the context of large projected economic and population growth, providing a framework for water professionals and community members that ensures available and affordable water supplies into the future.

Social norms are a powerful tool for water utilities that want to persuade consumers to change their behavior. The first substantial research that emerged from the water world on this front resulted from a June 2012 to June 2013 pilot project between 10,000 customers of East Bay Municipal Utilities District in the San Francisco Bay Area and WaterSmart Software. WaterSmart Software sends Home Water Reports, which tell customers how much water they’re using, how it compares to their own past use, as well as how much water similar households and similar efficient households are using. The reports also provide information on how to increase water efficiency, available rebates or other messaging from utilities, proving to be an effective technique for water utilities.

Water agencies and utility companies are increasingly using behavioral science, through reports comparing household water usage to the norm, to push the conservation messages and other targeted communications. This article looks at software analytics and communications tools, including WaterSmart, that incorporate data analytics, targeted communications, and social norms messaging to achieve measurable outcomes that utilities care about it.